OrbitalHub

NASA dixit:

“Peer over the shoulders of our engineers as they build hardware for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. This 360 video transports you to the historic Spacecraft Assembly Facility at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Engineer Emily Howard narrates as you walk around the cruise stage, which will fly the 2020 rover to the Red Planet, and the descent stage, which will lower the rover to the Martian surface.”

Video credit: NASA

NASA dixit:

“In just a couple of years, NASA’s newest rover will be flying to Mars. The Mars 2020 mission will use the next generation of science and landing technology to collect rock samples for possible return by a future mission.”

Video credit: NASA

NASA dixit:

“The first flight of an advanced supersonic parachute system for Mars 2020—NASA’s next Mars rover. This video is narrated by Ian Clark, the test’s technical lead from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The test took place on October 4, 2017, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia. At the moment of full inflation, the parachute is going 1.8 times the speed of sound or nearly 1,300 miles an hour, and generating nearly 35,000 pounds of drag force—drag that would be necessary to help slow a payload down as it was entering the Martian atmosphere. This is the first of several tests in support of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission.”

Video credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA dixit:

“When the Hubble Space Telescope observed Mars near opposition in May, 2016, a sneaky companion photobombed the picture. Phobos, the Greek personification of fear, is one of two tiny moons orbiting Mars. In 13 exposures over 22 minutes, Hubble captured a timelapse of Phobos moving through its 7-hour 39-minute orbit.”

Music credit: “Neighborhood Conspiracy” by Brice Davoli [SACEM]; Koka Media [SACEM], Universal Publishing Production Music (France) [SACEM]; Killer Tracks Production Music

Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Katrina Jackson

Wikipedia dixit:

“The BFR, which is variously said to stand for either Big Falcon Rocket or Big F@#$%^& Rocket, announced in September 2017, is SpaceX’s privately-funded launch vehicle, spacecraft and space and ground infrastructure system of spaceflight technology—including reusable launch vehicles and spacecraft. The system includes Earth infrastructure for rapid launch and relaunch; low Earth orbit, and zero-gravity propellant transfer technology. The new vehicle, while much smaller than an earlier version of SpaceX composite material vehicle design, is much larger than the existing SpaceX operational vehicles which it is intended to replace.

The new launch vehicle is planned to replace both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles and the Dragon spacecraft, in the operational SpaceX fleet in the early 2020s, initially aiming at the Earth-orbit market, but explicitly adding substantial capability to the spacecraft vehicles to support long-duration spaceflight in the cislunar and Mars mission environment as well. SpaceX intends this approach to bring significant cost savings which will help the company justify the development expense of designing and building the new launch vehicle design. BFR is a 9 meters (30 ft)-diameter launch vehicle.

An earlier larger design for the first non-Falcon launch vehicle from SpaceX was known as the ITS launch vehicle in 2016–2017. The design for all of the ITS vehicles were 12 meters (39 ft) diameter. While the earlier SpaceX designs had been aimed at Mars transit and other interplanetary uses, SpaceX pivoted in 2017 to a plan that would replace all SpaceX launch-service-provider capacity—Earth orbit, the Lunar-orbit region, and interplanetary space transport—with a single 9 m (30 ft)-diameter class of launch vehicles and spacecraft.

Development work began on the Raptor rocket engines to be used for both stages of the BFR launch vehicle in 2012, and engine testing began in 2016. New rocket engine designs are typically considered one of the longest of the development subprocesses for new launch vehicles and spacecraft. Tooling for the main tanks has been ordered and a facility to build the vehicles is under construction; construction will start on the first ship in 2Q2018. The company publicly stated an aspirational goal for initial Mars-bound cargo flights of BFR launching as early as 2022, followed by the first BFR flight with passengers one synodic period later, in 2024.”

Video credit: SpaceX

Wikipedia dixit:

“Gale is a crater, and probable dry lake, on Mars near the northwestern part of the Aeolis quadrangle at 5.4°S 137.8°E. It is 154 km (96 mi) in diameter and estimated to be about 3.5-3.8 billion years old. The crater was named after Walter Frederick Gale, an amateur astronomer from Sydney, Australia, who observed Mars in the late 19th century. Aeolis Mons is a mountain in the center of Gale and rises 5.5 km (18,000 ft) high. Aeolis Palus is the plain between the northern wall of Gale and the northern foothills of Aeolis Mons. Peace Vallis, a nearby outflow channel, ‘flows’ down from the Gale crater hills to the Aeolis Palus below and seems to have been carved by flowing water. The NASA Mars rover, Curiosity, of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, landed in “Yellowknife” Quad 51 of Aeolis Palus in Gale at 05:32 UTC August 6, 2012. NASA named the landing location Bradbury Landing on August 22, 2012. Curiosity is exploring Aeolis Mons and surrounding areas.

Gale crater, named for Walter F. Gale (1865-1945), an amateur astronomer from Australia, spans 154 km (96 mi) in diameter and holds a mountain, Aeolis Mons (informally named “Mount Sharp” to pay tribute to geologist Robert P. Sharp) rising 18,000 ft (5,500 m) from the crater floor, higher than Mount Rainier rises above Seattle. Gale is roughly the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island.

The crater formed when a meteor hit Mars in its early history, about 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago. The meteor impact punched a hole in the terrain, and the subsequent explosion ejected rocks and soil that landed around the crater. Layering in the central mound (Aeolis Mons) suggests it is the surviving remnant of an extensive sequence of deposits. Some scientists believe the crater filled in with sediments and, over time, the relentless Martian winds carved Aeolis Mons, which today rises about 5.5 km (3.4 mi) above the floor of Gale—three times higher than the Grand Canyon is deep.

At 10:32 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5, 2012 (1:32 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6, 2012), the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, landed on Mars at 4.5°S 137.4°E, at the foot of the layered mountain inside Gale crater. Curiosity landed within a landing ellipse approximately 7 km (4.3 mi) by 20 km (12 mi). The landing ellipse is about 4,400 m (14,400 ft) below Martian “sea level” (defined as the average elevation around the equator). The expected near-surface atmospheric temperatures at the landing site during Curiosity’s primary mission (1 Martian year or 687 Earth days) are from −90 °C (−130 °F) to 0 °C (32 °F).

Scientists chose Gale as the landing site for Curiosity because it has many signs that water was present over its history. The crater’s geology is notable for containing both clays and sulfate minerals, which form in water under different conditions and may also preserve signs of past life. The history of water at Gale, as recorded in its rocks, is giving Curiosity lots of clues to study as it pieces together whether Mars ever could have been a habitat for microbes. Gale Crater contains a number of fans and deltas that provide information about lake levels in the past, including: Pancake Delta, Western Delta, Farah Vallis delta and the Peace Vallis Fan.”

Video credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory